The Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Jean Mensa has criticised Parliament for opposing its new Constitutional Instrument (C.I) seeking to make the Ghana Card the sole voter registration document. 

Jean Mensa said the Ghana Card is the surest way to ensure the integrity of our register.Addressing the media on Thursday, August 17, she said the guarantor system had outlived its usefulness. 

According to her, the Commission does not believe the guarantor system has worked. “With regard to the CI that is before Parliament, we do not intend to put back the guarantor system because we do not believe that the guarantor system has worked for us.”

“Thirty years ago when we took this journey, and we did not have a Ghana Card, it was only proper that we adopt a system that would ensure that people who didn’t have any documentation could register and thirty years on, we now have the Ghana Card, and we must rely on it, and it is the surest way to ensure the integrity of our register,” she said. 

Jean Mensa insisted that the proposed C.I. would enable the EC to conduct a free and fair election. 

“As a commission that is determined to conduct credible, transparent, fair and peaceful elections, we were keen to establish and uphold the integrity of the foundational document which is the voters’ register, hence our proposal to use the Ghana Card as the sole document for identification of a person’s citizenship and or age.”“Our experience with the 2020 Registration Exercise showed that several minors and foreigners using the window of the guarantor system found their way onto our roll.

“To rid the register of minors and foreigners in 2020, the Electoral Commission established the District Registration Review Committees (DRRCS) which worked for several weeks to delete the names of minors and foreigners from the Register.

It took substantial time and effort to expunge the names of illegal persons from our [electoral] roll.”

“We challenged some 40,000 minors and foreigners and expunged some 15,000 persons from the Register,” she added. Meanwhile, she also revealed that the EC will commence the 2023 voter registration exercise on Tuesday, September 12, and end on Monday, October 2. 

The exercise will take place at its district offices across the country.

“The voter’s registration exercise will afford Ghanaians who have attained the age of 18 years, since the last registration of 2020 and others who are more than 18 years, but for various reasons couldn’t register during the 2020 registration exercise.”

“The EC will embark on voters registration in all 268 district offices of the Commission.

The exercise will be held from September 12 to October 2,” she disclosed.
Source: Myjoyonline.com